Warm and nourishing Pasta e Fagioli soup made with homemade bone broth is one of my go to weekday meals. My entire family loves it and it’s my favorite meal to make and bring to other people.
The trick to deep flavor in your soup is fond- those delightful crusty brown bits of meat at the bottom of your pot. I talk a lot about fond in my Merlot pasta sauce recipe. If you haven’t checked out that recipe you should do that ASAP, but you’re here because you’re in the mood for soup, so keep reading for all of the details about my favorite flavor powerhouse fond.
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Ingredients
- mild Italian sausage
- red pepper flakes
- olive oil
- onion
- carrots
- celery
- can crushed tomato
- petite diced tomato
- italian blend seasoning
- kosher salt
- chicken broth
- kidney beans
- great northern beans
- ditalini
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
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Step One: Cook sausage. Start with a pound of italian sausage, removed from its casing, and brown it in a dutch oven or other large pot. Heat your dutch oven over mead in high heat and don’t touch the sausage until you get a hard sear. Continue to break apart the sausage, adding in red pepper flakes as the meat cooks, allowing it to create delicious crusty bits on the bottom of your pot. The caramelized bits of food are called fond. Fond is flavor! Don’t believe me? Try a piece of your italian sausage with no brown crusty parts, now try a piece that has been heavily browned. There should be a world of difference in texture and flavor. We will be scraping up every bit of our delicious fond to amp up the flavor of our soup. Just watch it to make sure your fond stays a lovely brown color and doesn’t cross over into black, burnt, and bitter.
Step Two: Cook veggies and scrape up crusty bits. Remove the meat and set aside. Drop the heat to medium and add a drizzle of olive oil. Sauté your diced carrots, celery and onion until soft, about 5 minutes or so. Add in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Sautéing the vegetables should release enough liquid to soften the fond on the bottom of your pot. Use a wooden spoon or other utensil that won’t damage your pot and scrape up as much fond as you can.
Step Three: Add tomatoes, broth and seasonings. Next add your petite diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes. Cook for about 1 minute, scraping up any remaining fond. Return the meat to the pot and pour in your bone broth or chicken stock, Italian seasoning blend and salt. Bring to a simmer and cover. Let the soup cook for about 10 minutes over medium low heat to soften the veggies.
Step Four: Add beans. Add in kidney beans and great northern beans and simmer for an additional 5 minutes, covered.
Step Five: Cook pasta. While the soup simmers add plenty of salt to your boiling pasta water. Drop in ditalini, orzo or other small pasta and cook until al dente. I’d suggest a minute less than the lowest time on your package directions. Your noodles are going to keep cooking in your hot soup, so you want them a little under.
Step Six: Combine pasta and soup in bowls. Put a little pasta in a bowl and ladle hot soup on top. Everyone has a preferred pasta to soup ratio. I like about ¼ cup of pasta to 1 cup of soup, but keep adding a little pasta at a time until you find your preference.
Hint: I like to keep my pasta and soup separate. This allows people to choose how much pasta is in their soup and pasta doesn’t freeze super well. I always end up with enough leftovers to freeze, so keeping the pasta separate gives me that option.
Give yourself the gift of prep!
In this section I will give you ways to freeze, re-purpose and/or use some of your ingredients for another meal. Save yourself some time and effort next time you’re in the kitchen!
Freeze: This soup freezes so well! I always vacuum seal and freeze half of it (minus the pasta) so I have an instant meal on hand when needed. You can also freeze in an airtight container.
Chop extra veggies: The carrot, celery and onion base is used in so many of my recipes. Chances are you’re buying a bag of carrots and an entire celery bunch. Throw in an extra onion or two and give yourself the time to go ahead and dice ALL of it. Vacuum seal and freeze portions of your mirepoix (about 2 cups). Your future self that is scrambling to put together dinner on a hectic day will thank you when the chopping is already taken care of. You can also save some mirepoix in the fridge if you are making another carrot, celery and onion based dish that week. Try making Chicken Noodle Soup, Lasagna Soup, or Broccoli Cheddar Potato Soup.
Keep the veggie scraps: Don’t throw out the veggie scraps from your carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Throw them in a gallon bag in the freezer. Keep adding until you have a full bag, then use the scraps to make Chicken Bone Broth.
Substitutions
- Ditalini pasta- use any small pasta such as orzo
- Gluten free- omit the pasta or use gluten free pasta
Even if your reader doesn’t follow a specific diet (eg. gluten free), they may have friends or family that they’re cooking for that could use this. This is also a great idea to link out to another blogger with a similar recipe that fits a different diet.
Variations
- Veggie loaded- add in spinach, kale and/or chopped zucchini during the last 5 minutes of cooking (with the beans)
Equipment
Dutch oven: I have found that a dutch oven is the best way to get those crispy bits as you brown the sausage. I have made this in a stainless steel pot and it works too, it just takes longer to create the brown crispy bits.
Wooden Spoon: A wooden spoon is best for scraping the bottom of your pot without damaging it.
Storage
I like to keep my pasta and soup separate when storing in the fridge. This allows people to choose how much pasta is in their soup. If you plan on freezing any leftover, leave the pasta out as pasta doesn’t freeze super well.
Top Tip
Take time to really get a some brown crust on the Italian sausage.
Related
Looking for other soup recipes? Try these:
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with Pasta e Fagioli Soup:
Recipe
Pasta e Fagioli Soup
Course: Soups8
servings10
minutes30
minutes40
minutesWarm and nourishing Pasta e Fagioli soup full of veggies, beans and sausage is one of my go to weekday meals. It's super simple with a ton of flavor!
Ingredients
1 pound mild Italian Sausage, casing removed
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1 (15 ounce) can crushed tomato
1 (15 ounce) can petite dice tomato
2 tablespoon Italian blend seasoning
2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 cups chicken broth
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup ditalini pasta
Directions
- Start a pot of water and cook the ditalini pasta for 1 minute less than package directions. Drain and set aside. It'll finish cooking in the hot soup.
- While you prepare the pasta, brown the Italian sausage and red pepper flakes in a dutch oven over medium high heat , making sure to get a nice sear and plenty of brown crispy bits. Remove the meat and set aside.
- Drop heat to medium. Add olive oil and diced vegetables to the pot. Saute for about 5 minutes, scraping up any crispy brown bits left behind from browning the sausage. Add garlic and saute another minute until fragrant.
- Add petite diced and crushed tomatoes, cook for one minute, scraping up any remaining brown bits.
- Add chicken broth, Italian blend seasoning and salt. Return sausage to the pot. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add kidney beans and Great Northern Beans. Simmer covered for an additional 5 minutes.
- Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Put a little pasta in a bowl and ladle hot soup on top. I like about ¼ cup of pasta to 1 cup of soup. Enjoy!
Notes
- I love to use homemade chicken bone broth in place of store bought.
- Ditalini can be replaced with orzo or another small pasta.
- Omit pasta to make this recipe gluten free,
- Omit the red pepper flakes to remove spice.
- Adapted from Damn Delicious
